Identification of a prognosis-related phagocytosis regulator gene signature in medulloblastoma.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to screen for phagocytosis regulator-related genes in tissue samples from children with medulloblastoma (MB) and to construct a prognostic model based on those genes.

Methods: Differentially expressed genes between the MB and control groups were identified using the GSE50161 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Prognosis-related phagocytosis regulator genes were selected from the GSE85217 dataset. Intersecting genes of the two datasets (differentially expressed prognosis-related phagocytosis regulator genes) were submitted to unsupervised cluster analysis to identify disease subtypes, after which the association between the subtypes and the immune microenvironment was analyzed. A prognostic risk score model was constructed, and functional, immune-related, and drug sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results: In total, 23 differentially expressed prognosis-related phagocytosis regulator genes were identified, from which two disease subtypes (clusters 1 and 2) were classified. The prognoses of the patients in cluster 2 were significantly worse than those of the patients in cluster 1. The immune microenvironment differed significantly between the two subtypes. Finally, 10 genes (, , , , , , , , , and ) were selected to establish the prognostic risk score model. The prognosis in the low-risk group was better than that in the high-risk group. The model genes and were positively correlated with M2 macrophages.

Conclusion: Ten key phagocytosis regulator genes were screened to construct a prognostic model for MB. These genes may serve as key biomarkers for predicting the prognosis of patients with this type of brain cancer.